


Aching heart of a tiny green child

by woodystardust



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Ficlet, Fluff and Angst, Mando no helmet, baby in peril, tried to be cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:20:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28001553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woodystardust/pseuds/woodystardust
Summary: My version of what might happen when Mando FINALLY rescues Grogu (aka Baby Yoda), post-'The Tragedy' (written pre-chapter 15).Grogu has been holding his own against the Stormtroopers so far, but he can't wait to see his Mando again. He hears a voice he thinks he knows, but the man that turns the corner isn't one the little guy recognises. Who is this dark haired, mustachioed man? And where is his Mando?
Relationships: Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV) & Din Djarin
Comments: 9
Kudos: 193





	Aching heart of a tiny green child

He panted, Grogu feeling his eyes droop, the exhaustion suddenly hitting him like a huge tidal wave, the Stormtroopers finally staying down.  
He wanted to fall onto his back and rest more than anything, but on hearing more running footsteps coming towards his cell Grogu fought the temptation to give up, desperately straining to keep his eyes open.  
He could hear shouting now, the words getting clearer as the voices drew closer, Grogu's ears pricking as he tried to work out what they were saying-  
And his heart skipped a beat when he heard the word one of the voices was bellowing.  
"Grogu!"  
His name. Someone was shouting his name.  
"Grogu! Grogu, we're here!"  
Grogu's little heart fluttered like a bird in his chest. It was him, it must be him! It was his Mando! Not many people knew his name, so it must be him, it had to be.  
The figures were about to round the corner, he could feel it. Grogu braced himself to see his Mando, to allow himself to feel some relief, some hope that he would be safe.  
But when the man burst around the corner into his cell, Grogu's heart dropped to his feet. This wasn't Mando. It looked nothing like him.  
This man didn't have a skin of shining metal, and his face... well, he had one. It wasn't the helmet that Grogu had been hoping against hope to see, that sleek, high cheek boned mask with a strip of black for eyes.  
The man that was before him, that was looking at him with half a smile, with serious, worried eyes... who was he?  
Grogu tried to remember if he'd ever met anyone like this before, with that dark mess of thick hair, with those deep brown eyes and the slightly hooked nose beneath it, and the moustache along with the surrounding stubble, but he was so tired...  
Grogu frowned at the man, and the man frowned back, "Kid? Wha-"  
But Grogu stopped him in his tracks. He whipped his hand in front of him and clenched his fingers together into a claw.  
The man suddenly started to gasp for breath, letting loose a strained shout before he was forced to his knees, hands scrabbling at his throat, "Cara!"  
Almost immediately, another figure whipped into the cell back first as she kept an eye on the corridor, "Hey Mando, you need to hurry, we'll be crawling with imps any minute. Get the kid and let's-"  
But it was then that she turned from the open doorway to the situation in the cell, and her face paled, eyes wide in shock.  
Cara ran towards Grogu, shouting, pleading, "No! No kid, stop, it's Mando! See? He just doesn't have his helmet is all he- kid stop it, you're hurting him-"  
But Grogu had heard enough. Too many things were going on, he didn't know what to believe. He just wanted to go home to the ship. He threw forward his other hand and used the Force to knock her into the wall, silencing her momentarily.  
Head whirling, he looked back to the man, who was still managing to edge closer and closer.  
Grogu recognised Cara, he knew her, but... but this man was not his Mando. He couldn't be, he was so different...  
He watched Cara shake herself, as she slowly pushed herself up, crying out when she put pressure on the arm that had taken the brunt of her violent meeting with the wall.  
Grogu sighed, confused. She can't have been telling the truth. But why would Cara lie? She was a friend, Mando said they were friends.  
When Grogu turned back to the man on the floor, he was suprised for his gaze to be met so immediately by him. Brown into brown, they stared at each other, into each other. But Grogu kept his fist clenched.  
The man then started to speak, or tried to anyway, "It-it's okay, buddy, it's okay. Just listen to my v-voice. Just-just listen."  
So, after a second of unsure consideration, Grogu did listen. He switched the majority of his attention to concentrating, to really thinking about the man's voice, his rich, deep voice with a hint of gravel, closing his eyes as he did so.  
It was familiar, he couldn't deny that, so familiar it made something within his tiny heart ache.  
Grogu lessened the Force grip he had over the man in the hope he would say something more.  
He heard the man gasp for breath, it almost painful to hear how he wrenched air into his lungs in his desperation for it. Grogu was vaguely aware of Cara shuffling over to kneel beside him, supporting his body with her own, trying to help him in some way.  
The man then began again, "It's me, Grogu. It's Din, it's Mando. Cara-Cara was right, my armour, my helmet... they were taken from me. I know I look a little different, but i-it's me. It's m-me..."  
A pause then as he fumbled, before he gasped, "Look, look here. Look."  
So Grogu did look. He opened his huge, wide eyes -  
A shock wave seemed to jolt through him when he realised what the man was showing him.  
The man had the ball.  
He had his ball, his shiny, silver ball. The ball from Mando's ship, the one he always wanted.  
A little gasp escaped Grogu's lips as it flooded back to him, as he put two and two together, as he realised why the man's voice made him feel warm and cared for and loved, that he'd be protected no matter what. That everything would be okay, because it would be made okay, by him. It made him long for the days when he could relax in his little seat and look ahead, fearless, out at the shining dark, all because of the trust he had for the person guiding him through the stars.  
Tears filled the Child's eyes as he looked into the man's own ones, Grogu cooing as he realised he was finally looking into the face of the man he loved so very much.  
His Mando.  
With a relaxation of his hand, Grogu released him, then finally letting himself fall onto his back.  
He vaguely heard Cara shouting, about how "Not Okay" all this was, but Grogu could hardly pay any attention. He was hardly managing to stay awake.  
It was only when he saw Mando's shape above him that he tried to focus his gaze, to see his face again.  
Grogu could have started to cry all over again when he felt big, strong hands wrap around him, as he was held to a very familiar but distinctly warmer chest, which Grogu instantly melted into.  
He felt the reverberations of the Mandalorian's words through his chest, as he said to Cara, "It's okay, he was scared."  
More quietly, then, as he just held the Child, rocking him slightly, "He was just scared."


End file.
